6 months update: My Curly Girl Method hair journey…

From straight hair to wavy hair…

Last year, December to be exact, I decided to start a hair journey called the Curly Girl Method (CGM). This method is known by many hair bloggers as the technique to really bring out your natural waves and curls. The method encourages using natural hair products that contain no parabens, SLS, sulfates, silicones, alcohol denat and other chemical nasties. It’s said that by eliminating these ingredients, wavies and curlies will be able to unleash their hair’s full potential.

My hair has always been – what I thought – was pretty much straight hair (fine/medium density) with a few kinks. It wasn’t until I started looking back at some of my photos that I noticed I did have a wave halfway-down my hair and thought I might as well give the Curly Girl Method a try…

Before and After CGM: The waves are coming through!

Here’s a pic of my before and afters. Wow oh wow! What a difference right?! I’m telling you, no matter how much I tried to scrunch my hair before going CG, there were no waves were coming through. Now I can even get my waves to come through with a quick spritz of water on the second day!

Conditioner: I used Noughty’s Wave Hello conditioner and also switched over to Shea Moisture’s Fruit Fusion weightless conditioner in March.

Deep conditioning hair mask: I didn’t use one to start with as I couldn’t find one that was good and cheap but then found Garnier’s new argansilicone-free mask in February and was using that once a week. I now use Noughty’sHair To The Rescue mask once a week.

Styling: for styling I was using a CGM favourite, Umberto Giannini Curl Jelly which smelt amazing and worked well however I got tired of scrunching out the gel cast and moved over to my new fave styling product, the ECO Styler olive oil gel (green one) which I got from the African/Asian hair shop. I still use both. When I prefer to have a natural, softer wave I opt for my daughter’s leave-in product, ORS anti-breakage monoi oil curling creme however it’s too heavy for my hair so I’ve been thinking about purchasing the Noughty Hydrate & Shine serum. As my hair is fine/medium it needs really light products and I’ve found Noughty is great for this (more below)… 🙂

My favourite products/brands

There’s no doubt about it, the two brands I really love is new UK brand, Noughty and popular US brand, Shea Moisture.

I first heard about the Shea Moisture brand from my friend who is mixed (Jamaican/Chinese) and she has coily hair (roughly 4B curl type) and she recommended the castor oil range for my children’s hair. When they launched their weightless Fruit Fusion I decided I had to give it a try. Unlike Noughty, Shea Moisture’s shampoo still lathers up quite well without SLS and sulfates. For people who are just starting out on CGM and feel like their hair might not be able to handle the little/no lather and have fine to medium hair will love the Fruit Fusion range. It smells really nice too and the coconut water in the Fruit Fusion range seems to help my hair stay a little more hydrated.

Noughty is a brilliant UK brand and I can’t recommend it enough for curlies and especially wavies. The products are always weightless and smell amazing too! Every product is 97% and vegan-friendly – they never test on animals. I was sent the ‘to the rescue’ hair mask by Noughty to try and I was a little skeptical at first because I tried the Garnier argan range and as lovely as it smells and feels on my hair in the bath (the only silicone-free range by Garnier), it tends to weight it down – it’s great for Baby Girl’s curl type 3A/3B hair though! Noughty’s hair mask is extremely lightweight, easy to apply and smells absolutely delicious – think sweet, sweet almonds! The mask was light enough to not even fully rinse out. I really loved it and it definitely offers my hair more moisture without weighing it down. On the Noughty website, they offer free delivery for orders over £10 – happy days!

Another brand I’d like to try is Boucleme, I’ve heard lots of good things about their products so might try them out once my Shea Moisture products have finished.

My CGM hair journey from December to April

6 months on…

I started off with straight hair that had a few kinks in it here and there. After six months of going CGM, I would say my wavy hair curl type is a combination of 2A/2B. There’s few good clumps of 2B but it’s mainly type 2A. I’m really excited to see how my hair journey progresses in a few month’s time, and eventually in a year’s time.

It’s been a difficult six months as I loved dying my hair and now it’s so tricky as each time I dye it, it gets damaged. Hair masks with protein does help but my hair eventually feels weighed down by it so I’m still looking for a protein-based hair mask that doesn’t do that… still searching! If you know if any, please comment and let me know asap. Plus if it’s available in the UK that’ll help as US products are really expensive to ship over. I would love to try out the Deva Curl range but it’s expensive to ship and I’ve read reviews about it being watered down from Amazon purchases… yeah I’ll pass on that one.

My top tips and advice for fellow wavies…

Squish to condish is one of the most important steps in our hair washing routine. After adding conditioner, I comb through my hair with my fingers to detangle then squish to condish from there to rinse and finish.

Don’t fully rinse out all of the conditioner – stop rinsing one cycle short to leave a little conditioner in, I find it helps with the flyaway hairs. If you find this too ‘greasy’ you can run water over the top of your head and cradle your hair to prevent the waves from stretching out.

Scrunch scrunch and scrunch! When towel-drying use an old cotton or jersey tshirt as it’s much softer and prevents frizz. Stop scrunching halfway to add your styling product however I found with gel it’s best to add it to the hair when it’s wet then add in again when it’s halfway dry.

Plopping works great unless your hair is very long. A quick blast with a diffuser will help cut drying time and helps prevent the waves from stretching out, I usually switch from a blast of the hot setting to 5 secs of the cold setting then wait 3-5 secs before taking the diffuser away to do other sections.

Regularly trim your ends to keep your hair healthy.

A weekly hair mask is vital especially if you have coloured hair like me. Experiment between products with and without protein (if your hair is low porosity, it won’t like the protein).

The Curly Girl Method does really work but it is definitely NOT a quick hair fix. You do really have to work hard for your waves and watch out for the products that are not CGM-approved. British Curlies can help with their extensive list of ingredients to avoid if you get stuck.. there’s lots to remember! Learning more about my hair has also made me realise how much I need to teach Baby Girl about her hair when she gets older. Unfortunately our products are different and she requires a little more care than I but it’s a good learning curve. She loves her curls and I’m so glad that she does! 🙂